A Taste of Honey – Royal Exchange Theatre
In 1958, a 19-year-old Salford girl called Shelagh Delaney went to watch 'Variation on a Theme' by Terence Rattigan at Manchester’s Opera House. Incensed at the portrayal of homosexual relationships in the play, she came out of the theatre thinking she could do something far better, inside two weeks she had written 'A Taste of Honey'. This raw and powerful story of poverty, race and sexuality quickly became a crucial part of the 'British New Wave’ and later supplied Morrissey with half the lyrics on the debut Smiths album.
The beating heart of this play is the relationship between Helen (Jill Halfpenny) and her teenage daughter Jo (Rowan Robinson), they are first seen arriving in squalid lodgings in a Salford backstreet with little money and even less hope.
Helen is described by Dela...